Faculty and Purdue’s student body president question whether Chick-fil-A, a polarizing fast food franchise, lives up to the university’s claims about diversity

As a Chick-fil-A franchise prepares to land at Purdue, faculty on University Senate are considering a measure that would force companies doing business on the West Lafayette campus to adhere to Purdue standards "to uphold the same values and promote inclusivity with their policies, hiring practices and actions."(Photo: File photo)

WEST LAFAYETTE – Purdue’s plans to bring a Chick-fil-A fast food franchise to campus – long sought in student petitions and announced this summer as part of a new residence hall opening in 2020 – were called out Monday by faculty members, who suggested the university needed to reacclimate itself with the proper way to treat its LGBT students and staff.

A proposed measure meant to pressure Purdue’s administration to make sure that commercial ventures on campus “uphold the same values and promote inclusivity with their policies, hiring practices and actions” didn’t call out Chick-fil-A by name.

“It’s bigger than that,” said Audrey Ruple, chair of the University Senate’s Equity and Diversity Committee. “We intentionally didn’t want this to be about one business – just ‘The Chick-fil-A’ resolution.”

But Jo Boileau, Purdue’s new student body president, didn’t mince words about a measure that was purposely broad to make any commercial business looking to open on campus match the university’s affirmative action codes. He wanted to talk about the “much more specific case” of Chick-fil-A.

“As student body president and as an openly gay student, this is something I’m confronting on a daily basis, in conversations I’m having every single day with students on this campus,” Boileau said.

If Purdue could give back millions of dollars from Papa John’s founder John Schnatter in 2018 because of racist remarks, Boileau said, he questioned what sort of message the university was sending to its LGBT community by clearing the way for Chick-fil-A.

The measure, expected to get a formal University Senate vote in October, follows news over the summer that Purdue had landed a contract with Chick-fil-A to put the fast food sandwich restaurant in the Third Street Suites residence hall when it opens at 401 N. Russell St. in fall 2020.

Chick-fil-A, which has a franchise on South Street in Lafayette, has been a polarizing business along social grounds in the past decade. Critics have promoted boycotts of the business after owner Dan Cathy took outspoken, religious-based stances against same-sex marriage and revelations that the company’s support for organizations that LGBT advocates viewed as hostile to gays and lesbians.

Chick-fil-A has been called out in other campuses and cities in recent months.

At the University of Kansas, the campus’ Sexuality & Gender Diversity Faculty and Staff Council protested this summer when Chick-fil-A moved from a basement location on campus – where the restaurant had been since 2004 – to a prominent spot in the student union. According to an account in the Kansas City Star, a letter to the KU chancellor called out the administration for giving “Chick-fil-A, a bastion of bigotry, a prime location in the heart of our campus.” The letter also protested the “Chick-fil-A Coin Toss” at the start of KU football games, saying it “violates the feelings of safety and inclusion that so many of us have striven to create, foster and protect on campus” and that the deals showed the university was “more concerned about money” … than the “mental well-being of marginalized” people on campus.

In July, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed what was dubbed the “Save Chick-fil-A” bill. The bill barred government bodies from going after companies or individuals based on their religious beliefs. That followed the city of San Antonio’s move to block a Chick-fil-A franchise from getting a spot at the city’s airport because of the chain’s “legacy of anti-LGBT behavior,” according to an account in The Washington Post.

Chick-fil-A representatives did not immediately respond to questions Monday about the Purdue proposal.

What a resolution from the University Senate, an advisory body for Purdue’s administration, would do in practice wasn’t clear Monday. Some professors said they were skeptical about their influence.

Rob Wynkoop, Purdue’s director of service enterprises, said Monday that he wasn’t ready to speak directly to that question. He said Purdue already followed state, federal and university guidelines when dealing with companies doing business on campus.

How about doing business with Chick-fil-A, specifically, given the political division its drive-through can inspire?

“I want to be sensitive to it,” Wynkoop said. “But it’s something that students have called for for a long, long, long, long time. Student body presidents and their cabinets have actually run on that platform, to bring it to campus.”

Wynkoop added: “And they’ve been on campus for a year, now.”

Chick-fil-A in 2018 started delivering a pop-up style location three evenings a week in the Krach Leadership Center, a building that also houses an Amazon pickup location as well offices for student groups and student services at Third Street and Martin Jischke Drive.

Also in 2018, Purdue students started a petition at Change.org titled, “Purdue Needs a Chick-fil-A.” As of Monday, 3,416 people had signed the online petition.

Among them was Riley Johnson, a senior studying dietetics, who wrote at the time: “This is an incredible company with strong values, great services and delicious food.” What was his take this week, as faculty members challenged Chick-fil-A’s place on campus?

“The restaurant’s stances do not cross my mind when I go there or affect my eating habits,” Johnson said. “I personally believe a private company should have the freedom to take a political or religious stance if they choose. If people don’t agree with it, then they don’t have to eat there. That is their choice.”

David Bergsma, a sixth-year senior in Purdue’s doctor of pharmacy program, signed the petition, too. He said he was in a room with other students when he heard Chick-fil-A was going to be part of the Third Street Suites North residence hall – news he called “exciting.”

“The general response was cheering and gratitude – gratitude that Purdue actually saw the petition and listened to us,” Bergsma said. “I think the number of people trying to keep Chick-fil-A off our campus because of their political stances is a small minority. Most students couldn’t care less, we just want the amazing food they have. I think this is evidenced by the long lines for sandwiches in Krach whenever the restaurant visits.”

Still, Linda Prokopy, a professor and member of the University Senate’s Equity and Diversity Committee, argued that “there are students, there are staff and there are faculty on this campus who are hurting by a decision made by this university” over the summer. Even if the administration chose to ignore the University Senate, she said, the faculty should still stand up for those who say they’re hurting.

Ruple agreed.

“Many people, when they’re not personally affected by the exclusionary principles of businesses, it’s genuinely a blind spot,” Ruple said. “For me, this is something that’s so central to how we operate as an institution, that to allow organizations onto our premises that don’t follow those same inclusivity principles actually really undermines the core of who we are.”

Reach Dave Bangert at 765-420-5258 or at dbangert@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @davebangert.